How to clean the shank

[TheBroonery]

I just kicked the 1st sixtle after converting my basement fridge into a kegerator. Anyways I rinsed the coupling, beer line, and faucet with hot water and let them dry. Is there a good way to clean/rinse the shank without having to remove it from the door?

 

[devilishprune]

Wipe the outside off with a paper towel or a rag and run cleaner through your system by pushing with CO2.

 

[TheBroonery]

Ok I've got a bottle of BLC and the end of the gas hose that connects to the coupling has the same size threads to be able to attach to the shank and push CO2 out through the shank. Where do I insert the cleaner?

 

[bull8042]

Personally, I don't disassemble anything to clean except for the tap itself. I clean a keg, then mix a couple of quarts of cleaner in it and hook it up as I would a brew. Hit it with just a little gas, enough to get a bit of positive pressure. No need to waste CO2 by fully pressurizing a nearly empty keg. Then dispense until it comes out "all cleaner" and let it sit for a 1/2 hour or so in the lines. Then dispense the remainder of the cleaner. Rinse the keg well, leave a bit of clean water in it and hook it up and dispense to rinse the lines. Then I may mix a little sanitizer and run it through the lines just for a piece of mind. If I won't be using that tap right away, I leave the sanitizer in the lines and push it out with the beer when I get another brew online.
I don't clean my lines but every 3rd or 4th keg change myself. Some like to clean at every change.

 

[TheBroonery]

Personally, I don't disassemble anything to clean except for the tap itself. I clean a keg, then mix a couple of quarts of cleaner in it and hook it up as I would a brew. Hit it with just a little gas, enough to get a bit of positive pressure. No need to waste CO2 by fully pressurizing a nearly empty keg. Then dispense until it comes out "all cleaner" and let it sit for a 1/2 hour or so in the lines. Then dispense the remainder of the cleaner. Rinse the keg well, leave a bit of clean water in it and hook it up and dispense to rinse the lines. Then I may mix a little sanitizer and run it through the lines just for a piece of mind. If I won't be using that tap right away, I leave the sanitizer in the lines and push it out with the beer when I get another brew online.
I don't clean my lines but every 3rd or 4th keg change myself. Some like to clean at every change.

That sounds like a pretty good procedure, however I haven't upgraded to a Cornelius keg yet. Just a sanke with a regular coupling.

 

[azscoob]

I have a beer line cleaning kit, it is a bottle with a hose coming out of it, the other end has a splined end that attaches to the shank, I place a bucket below the line from the coupler and invert the bottle to let the cleaner flow through the line, after doing this a couple times I use hot water to rinse the line the same way that I cleaned it. reassemble everything and hook up a new keg o' beer

 

[bull8042]

That sounds like a pretty good procedure, however I haven't upgraded to a Cornelius keg yet. Just a sanke with a regular coupling.

What I was recommending does not require any other hardware. So, I cannot think of any reason that the same procedure would not work for you as well so long as you have the capability of removing the spear and filling the keg with beer already.